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Posts Tagged ‘Makana Stone’

Enough with the Emily’s!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Emily Brandland, Emily Yost, Makana Stone, Mia Littlejohn, Mt. Baker on December 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Freshman Mia Littlejohn popped for a varsity career-high nine points Monday. (John Fisken photo)

The two-woman game worked pretty well for Mt. Baker.

With Emily Brandland dropping 24 and Emily Yost adding 22, the Mountaineer duo outscored host Coupeville by themselves Monday night.

Toss in a few points from the supporting cast and superb control of the game by speedy point guard Kylee Engholm and what had been a deadlocked girls’ basketball game at the half turned into a semi-rout by the end, with Mt. Baker strolling back to the bus with a 59-44 win.

The non-conference loss dropped the Wolf girls to 2-2.

Coupeville will have three days of practice to right their ship before traveling to Klahowya (0-3) Friday night for their first 1A Olympic League game.

The Wolves looked impressive at times in the first half, using a 14-5 run in the second quarter (in which seven different players scored a bucket) to take a 21-17 lead.

After Mt. Baker surged back into the lead, Coupeville forced a 23-23 deadlock by barely beating the halftime buzzer.

Monica Vidoni took a pass in the paint, drew defenders to her and dumped the ball backwards at the last second to teammate Julia Myers, who came flying up the gut for a gorgeous layup.

The play caught the Mountaineers by surprise and brought the vocal local fans to their feet.

Unfortunately, the euphoria didn’t last long once the second half kicked off.

After trading buckets to kick the third quarter off, the two teams suddenly veered in opposite directions.

Mt. Baker started running the same plays over and over, successfully, while Coupeville fell off the edge of a cliff with a deadly mix of turnovers, shots that popped back out or dropped off the rim and a serious lack of rebounding.

An 11-2 third-quarter run by the visitors put a hurtin’ on the Wolves.

When they responded with back-to-back buckets from Kacie Kiel and Mia Littlejohn, the Mountaineers blunted the run with a successful three-pointer that was launched one step away from having the shooter out in the parking lot.

CHS, powered by Wynter Thorne, who popped for six in the fourth, tried repeatedly to cut Baker’s lead.

It didn’t work, however, as the closest the Wolves would get was eight, and the Mountaineers responded to that with a game closing 7-0 spurt of their own.

Stone paced Coupeville with 11, while plucky freshman Littlejohn hit for a varsity career-high nine.

Thorne banked in eight, the trio of Vidoni, Kiel and Myers knocked down four apiece while Hailey Hammer and McKenzie Bailey rounded out the scoring attack with a bucket each.

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Soaring above the crowd!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, David King, John Fisken photos, Kyla Briscoe, Makana Stone on December 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

“Oh, I don’t think so!!” Makana Stone does NOT surrender any potential rebounds, but thanks for asking. (John Fisken photos)

Lauren Grove (3) gets mugged in broad daylight and yet the refs see nothing. NOTHING, I said.

Kyla Briscoe, ready for basketball or a limbo contest, whichever comes first.

CHS coach David King imparts wisdom to Stone.

CHS basketball guru David King imparts hoops wisdom to Stone.

Kacie Kiel dances up the court.

Mattea Miller (center), caught in the middle of a scrum.

Kailey Kellner (42) can out-rebound any two of your girls.

Julia Myers holds her breath until someone takes her picture. Being an irrepressible camera-magnet, she only had to wait 1.3 seconds for it to happen.

Best team in the conference.

Even after a tough, one-point loss to Bellevue Christian Saturday, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team is the only one of the eight teams in the 1A Olympic League with a winning record.

In fact, at 2-1, they have twice as many wins as the other seven squads do combined.

The Coupeville boys (1-3) are the only other team to even have a win, with Klahowya, Chimacum and Port Townsend’s boys and girls squads a combined 0-11 in non-conference play so far.

To celebrate, some spiffy new John Fisken pics of the Wolf girls in action.

Want to see more? Hop over to:

Varsity — http://www.olympicleague.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=7403&league=21&page_name=photo_store&school=24&school_year=2014-15&sport=0

JV — http://www.olympicleague.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=7402&league=21&page=1&page_name=photo_store&school=24&sport=0

And remember, purchases help fund college scholarships for CHS senior student/athletes.

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Everything, but the win!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, Bellevue Christian, CHS Wolves, Kacie Kiel, Makana Stone on December 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Julia Myers gets two the hard way. (John Fisken photos)

Just a freshman, Mia Littlejohn (right) holds up well under the pressure.

Playoff basketball arrived on Dec. 6 this season.

It was only the third game of the year, and a non-conference one at that, but Saturday’s showdown between the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad and visiting Bellevue Christian had a postseason feel.

Big plays, tension-packed final moments, odd calls, frequent lead changes, a star player avoiding a catastrophic injury by an inch or two — it had it all.

What it didn’t have for the Wolves was a win, as a buzzer-beater shot that might have forced overtime dropped in, but for two and not the three needed, allowing the Vikings to escape with a hard-fought 52-51 win.

The loss dropped Coupeville to 2-1, heading into a Monday home game against Mount Baker (5:15 JV/7:00 varsity), the team that actually did knock the Wolves out of the 1A playoffs last season.

Things ended on a dramatic note (or seven or eight) Saturday as the two teams combined for 32 fourth-quarter points, two big lead changes and a tension-packed final 58 seconds.

Down by five, Coupeville stormed back to take the lead at 43-42 with three straight baskets (Makana Stone banked one off the backboard, then stole the ball on the next play, feeding Kacie Kiel on a breakaway, before Mia Littlejohn capped things by dropping a perfect pass off to a waiting Julia Myers).

Bellevue Christian refused to break, however, immediately going on its own 8-2 run to reclaim the lead.

Enter Kiel again, swishing a gorgeous jumper from the left side to keep things interesting.

After Wynter Thorne and Kiel teamed up to force a turnover in the back court, Hailey Hammer scored on an in-bounds play to cut the lead back to one.

Coupeville’s defense again clamped down, but its offense misfired on consecutive tries.

Hope lingered, however, as the Vikings, who had been virtually flawless from the line all afternoon, suddenly got gun-shy at the charity stripe.

Missing half of their four tries in the final 11 seconds, they gave CHS back the ball while clinging to just a three-point lead.

Needing to go the length of the court in 5.9 seconds, Littlejohn took the pass and hurtled down the left side, looking for Stone or Kiel.

She found Kiel, who caught the ball, turned and immediately fired and watched it drop through with a gentle swish.

It was only as everyone realized Kiel had inadvertently drifted a step or two inside the three-point line that the Bellevue Christian celebration exploded.

While the game didn’t end with a win, or at least a chance at overtime, it shouldn’t overshadow the way the Wolves played. At times, they looked like a well-oiled machine, and it was only a couple of brief stumbles that denied them.

Some of that might have been the short turn-around time, as Coupeville tipped off about 15 hours after beating Darrington the night before.

Though, in the early going, there was no sleepiness or tired legs.

The Wolves bolted out to a 12-2 lead with Stone throwing down six and dealing to Thorne on the wing for a breakaway layup.

Bellevue fought back, mixing deadly outside shooting with a patient defense and claimed its first lead at 17-16 midway through the second quarter.

Coupeville used a 5-0 mini-spurt to reopen a 25-21 lead, only to see the Vikings nail a last-second three-pointer from the top to put their halftime deficit at just one.

The second half started in favor of the Wolves, with Hammer hitting on a pair of inside buckets, then sharply turned for a bit.

Bellevue went on a 13-2 tear, grabbing its biggest lead at six, before Monica Vidoni stepped forward with a five-point burst of her own to tighten things back up.

The game’s biggest scare came when Stone, chasing a loose ball, skidded out of bounds, smashing her back badly against an exposed power box on the back wall.

Other than being in a lot of pain at the moment, and possibly having an imprint of power plug-ins on her back, she came away unscathed, allowing the collective bated breath of Wolf Nation to be released as one.

After sitting out for part of the third, she returned to spark the Wolves in the fourth, setting up what become the wildest finish of the still-young season.

Stone finished with a team-high 14, while Kiel dropped in 10.

Vidoni banged home nine, Hammer hit for six, Myers collected five, McKenzie Bailey swished a pair of sweet jumpers for four and Thorne netted three.

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Red hot ‘n rollin’!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, John Fisken photos, Kacie Kiel, Makana Stone, Mia Littlejohn on December 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Freshman Mia Littlejohn is super-excited to be playing varsity ball. (John Fisken photos)

That moment when the Darrington coach wonders, “What if I had a player as good as Makana Stone…”

Julia Myers (left), McKenzie Bailey and Madeline Strasburg (injured, but working as an unpaid assistant coach) watch the action from the bench.

Bailey prepares to trigger the play.

Hailey Hammer is locked-in at the line.

Stone, backed up by Wynter Thorne (25) comes flying out of the pack with the ball.

There’s nowhere to go when Monica Vidoni drops the defensive boom on you.

Kacie Kiel puts her whole body into a full-court pass.

The most exciting team on the Island.

After polishing off Darrington Friday, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad is a shiny 2-0 and just getting started.

Along to document their win over the visiting Loggers was travelin’ photo man John Fisken, who provides the pics above.

To see more (purchases help fund scholarships for CHS senior student/athletes) pop over to:

http://www.olympicleague.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=7391&league=21&page=1&page_name=photo_store&school=24&sport=0

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Wolves feast on Loggers!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Maddie Big Time, Makana Stone, Monica Vidoni, undefeated on December 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Wolf softball sensation McKayla Bailey loses her flippin’ mind after lil’ sis McKenzie drains a buzzer-beater. (John Fisken photos)

Monica had seven points and pulled off two huge plays in the late stages of Friday's win.

Monica Vidoni scored seven points Friday and pulled off two huge plays in the late stages of her team’s win.

This year’s edition of the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad is a very tight-knit one, which helps on nights when you can only suit up eight players.

Everyone knows their role and everyone picks each other up, and it’s paying benefits.

That was very evident Friday, as the Wolves overcame the absence of injured spark-plug Madeline Strasburg (who stalked the sidelines like a second coach, high-fiving, screaming out defensive assignments and even operating the dry erase board like a pro at one point) to pummel visiting Darrington 47-31.

The non-conference win improved CHS to a flawless 2-0 heading into a Saturday home tussle with Bellevue Christian (12:15 tip), while showcasing many of its strengths.

Strength one — they’ve got a genuine star in junior Makana Stone, who can take control of the game at a moment’s notice.

Against the Loggers, who were three steps slower and much more ground-bound than she was, it wasn’t just the game-high 17 points she poured in.

It was also the countless rebounds she corralled, the steals she made off with or set up for others and the way her mere presence in the paint made Darrington players step back and reconsider their shot choices.

Strength two — any player can kill you, at any time.

Coupeville hit its only offensive road bump in the third quarter, missing a string of shots and allowing Darrington to pull within 10.

Enter Monica Vidoni and exit any hopes the Loggers still had.

First the senior pulled off the smoothest play of her high school career, taking the ball and spinning to her left, throwing down a rolling hook shot while being hammered.

Shaking off the blow, she dropped in a free-throw for a three-point play that all but cinched the win.

Not satisfied, she then used her height to her advantage in the fourth, drawing a defender to her before firing a flawless pass over the top to a suddenly wide-open Hailey Hammer for a quick and satisfying layup.

And it wasn’t just Vidoni, as fellow Wolf reserves Mia Littlejohn and McKenzie Bailey came up big-time when on the floor.

Bailey fed Vidoni for a first-quarter bucket, then rained down a pair of elegant jumpers of her own.

The second banked off the glass and dropped in a millisecond before the buzzer signaled the end of the quarter, sending big sis McKayla Bailey into a screaming fit in the stands.

“That’s my sister! THAT IS MY SISTER!!!,” she thundered while beating everyone near her over the head with the hand-written sign she had made in honor of McKenzie.

Littlejohn, a freshman with speed to burn, opened the fourth quarter with a thunder clap almost as loud.

Picking the pocket of a hapless Logger, she shot down the left sideline, with Darrington players in pursuit.

One almost caught her, at which point Littlejohn slipped into another gear entirely, leaving visible tread marks on the hardwood as she blazed in for a layup.

Strength three — Julia Myers, Kacie Kiel, Wynter Thorne and Hammer will cut a girl, if necessary.

OK, maybe not cut a girl, but beat the snot out of her within the rules and guidelines of basketball, yes.

Flying to every ball, ripping rebounds away from foes who wanted it less and, in the case of Myers, dropping an occasional inadvertent full-body slam on a fool who tried to wrestle a ball from her grasp (it is to laugh…).

Darrington had talent, it had a deadly outside shooter who, behind her glasses, had the eyes of a long-range killer and the Loggers played with passion and heart.

But Coupeville wanted this one more. They wanted to make another step on the path to their goal of breaking years of drought and carrying the Wolf banner back to the state tourney.

And they did. Emphatically.

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